1/ Liquid Fluoride #ThoriumReactors - a type of nuclear energy - have the potential to restore our environment, enrich humanity, and power interstellar space exploration. 
2/ There are many types of Thorium Reactors, but most refer to the Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor ("lifter"). LFTRs are a type of low pressure, high temperature, liquid-fueled, thermal breeder reactor. If developed, LFTRs would be the most radical fission reactor ever invented.
3/ LFTRs are a type of Molten Salt Reactor (MSR), which were developed from the Aircraft Reactor Experiment (ARE), but more notably the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE) looking to utilize the #thorium fuel cycle.
Oakridge National Lab (ORNL) 1957-69
Oakridge National Lab (ORNL) 1957-69
4/ LFTRs breed fertile Thorium-232 (generates its own fuel) as oppose to burning fissile U-235 in contemporary water-cooled reactors. For LFTRs to become self-sustaining, one neutron must transmute Th-232 into Pa-233->U-233 and a second neutron must fission a comparable U-233.
5/ Solid-fuel thorium reactors are incredibly difficult to operate due to their poor neutron economy. However, because LFTRs are liquid-fueled (homogeneous), their neutron economy is manageable and thus a more viable reactor design using the thorium fuel cycle.
6/ Safety: All MSRs have supreme levels of safety. There is no need to pressurize molten salt, as compared to water-cooled reactors. With no possibility of a highly pressurized steam explosion, MSRs physically can not explode like Chernobyl or Fukushima.
7/ Safety: During an emergency, LFTRs have a freeze-plug that melts which allows the liquid fuel to drain into a drain tank. Because the drain tank has no moderator, recriticality is physically impossible for liquid-fueled thermal breeders like LFTRs
8/ Safety: Today's water-cooled nuclear reactors are already the safest form of energy, when measured in Deaths per Terawatt-hour. Water-cooled reactors are expensive, relative to fossil fuels, exactly due to their safety (and politics), but MSRs seek to be both safer and cheaper
9/ Cost: Most utilities, including electricity, are natural monopolies due to their enormous fixed capital costs (think billions), efficiency from one source of production (less transmission lines), and +20 years needed to reach a return on a multi-billion dollar investment.
10/ Cost: Nuclear energy might be the most difficult industry to innovate in. Because of the extreme fixed capital costs and decades to profitability, a nuclear startup has a colossal "valley of death". And with the politics of nuclear, new reactors pose a great financial risk.
11/ Cost: However, the laws of physics dictate the price of electricity. Because fission has a million times the energy density of chemical bonds and Uranium and Thorium are relatively abundant, even today's nuclear reactors can be incredibly profitable.
12/ Cost: Fuel cost is lower since there is no need to manufacture fuel pellets or fuel rods. For a LFTR, no expensive enrichment is required, simply add solid or molten Thorium to the molten fuel.
…uidfluoridethoriumreactor.glerner.com
…uidfluoridethoriumreactor.glerner.com
13/ Cost: MSRs will have cheaper fixed capital costs. Because of their low pressure, they can be design without traditional containment buildings. And the reactor is not geographically constrained to bodies of water, allowing MSRs to be constructed where needed.
14/ Cost: A Small Modular Reactor (SMR) is any reactor near or less than 300MWe while being constructed in part or in whole in a factory to be shipped where needed. Compared to building reactors onsite, SMRs can accelerate global deployment by orders of magnitude.
15/ Cost: Small modular MSRs are even more compact due to their low pressure. Because of MSRs' inherent safety, small modular MSRs can be deployed to remote locations where little or no trained personnel are needed to operate the reactor, further accelerating global deployment.
16/ Society: The entire global economy: manufacturing, agriculture, communications, defense, transportation, housing, research, conservation, and entertainment are all interdependent systems proxied by the price and use of energy.
17/ Society: Our entire social structure is driven by minimizing costs. This can be financial costs, social costs, or environmental costs. Because our international system is anarchic (no global govt), all countries prioritize their own financial costs over other forms of cost.
18/ Society: As our global population grows and nations develop, our total primary energy supply also increases. Energy usage correlates to higher standards of living, even accounting for efficiency. Ironically, more energy use will be needed to adapt to climate change.
19/ Environment: Scientists believe we are entering into the Earth's sixth mass extinction, due to anthropogenic (man-made) climate change. Greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture, iron & steel production, cement & glass production, waste, and burning fossil fuels.
20/ Environment: Carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O) and other greenhouse gases are responsible for global warming. The effects of global warming include rising sea levels, extreme storms, longer heat waves, and expansion of deserts.
21/ Environment: Rising CO2 levels are responsible for ocean acidification - the ongoing decrease in the pH of the Earth's oceans. This will suppress or eliminate coral, clams, mussels, sea urchins, barnacles, and certain microscopic plankton - threatening all marine ecosystems.
22/ Environment: Climate change is subjected to positive feedback loops (exponential growth). Examples include shrinking reflective ice sheets, permafrost melting, water vapor feedback, dying marine life, and disequilibrium in the carbon-cycle from dying photosynthetic organisms.
23/ Environment: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts, by 2050, 100s of millions of climate refugees due decreasing crop yield, coastal flooding, less seafood (14% of global diet), and fresh water shortages - ensuring increased social unrest and conflict.
24/ Mitigation: Nuclear power plants, an emissions free source of energy, have been shown to scale quickly. In +20 years, nuclear energy reached 70% of the France's total electricity production. In the United States, nuclear energy accounts for 55% of all emissions free energy.
25/ Mitigation: Since no governing body can enforce emission standards on other nations, cheap fossil fuel production is accelerating in developing nations. If MSRs are cheaper than fossil fuels, countries will be economically motivated to choose emission free energy.
26/ Mitigation: One reason to prioritize LFTRs over fast breeders is due to their doubling times. Compared to fast breeders, thermal breeders (breeds U-233) and burners (burns U-235) can achieve rapid global deployment, however burners are less sustainable due to U-235's scarcity
